This is Not a Review Post
Consider this the opposite of my post about The Lion King (2019) as this is more of a celebration of the or love letter to Better Call Saul much like I did with Synecdoche, New York.
If you still want to know my rating of the show, just know I give it a 10/10 overall, It's perfectly filmed, edited, acted directed, and even the musical score worked perfectly in it so there isn't much to say to any of that.
The Best Possible Ending
It's very interesting looking at the ending of this show after watching Breaking Bad and El Camino knowing where every character ends up. It's also interesting to see how different fate is for each character.
Jimmy McGill or Saul's ending suits the journey of the character. Much like Walter White's ending blending into the beginning of his journey into the criminal world, Saul's ending comes at the hand of what made Saul come so far.
The New Characters
Nacho, Lalo, Chuck, and Howard were all welcomed characters into this story. They made this series become the success it is considering the fact that going into this series, we knew the fate of the main characters already so having other characters to be wary of or concerned about made the series much more exciting to watch.
I am planning to start a series where I break down each series so I won't be talking a lot about the characters here or reveal much.
However, it should be noted that the addition of the new characters almost reversed the effect of knowing the future as it either kept me intrigued and wanting to know how a character got to a certain point. There's always a little game of guessing whether a person would end up dead or just leaving.
Excellet Writing
This is perhaps the greatest quality of the show as it is very well-written. The characters have a clear direction that reveals itself as the story continues. The dialogue is crafted with precision. By the end of the story, each character felt like its own full story other than serving as a chess piece to just get one character across.
The writers did a masterful job in creating a melting-pot type world where different people have different circles that intertwine with each other creating conflict and intense moments.
The Slow Burn
This will perhaps be people's biggest issue with the show but personally, I love it. The show doesn't jump into action right away and in the world of needlessly fast-paced shows, it is refreshing to have a show that builds itself and its characters up slowly as it feels more natural. It feels like a human story about change rather than just plot and cliffhangers to keep you coming back for more.
Now, to the Finale (Spoilers Ahead)
The showrunners resorted to splitting its final season into two halves to give themselves more time to do everything they want. To their credit, it did feel like two different seasons, unlike the way it felt when they did it with Breaking Bad.
With that said, the first half was the most exciting of the two. It is probably because of the fact that the most interesting characters were colliding and it had the stories of Nacho and Howard come to an end. It was basically a conclusion of stories that took years to tell.
The second half, on the other hand, was a slower built following Saul Goodman's post Breaking Bad world so it was slightly harder to relate to a world where all but very few characters felt familiar.
The Final Episode
The final episode condensed the struggle between Jimmy McGill and his alter egos, be them, Saul or Gene. Do you submit to the new life? Do you go back to the part of your life where everything was exciting? Or do you just come clean?
The decision Jimmy made is what made the ending perfect because much like the theme of Walter White and Jessie Pinkman's final fate, it was made on his own terms. We saw the possibility of Jimmy getting out with slight punishment and the possibility of walking away free was also very highly likely.
However, the final scene at the court just spoke "Enough!". It was time to end all the excitement as everything was getting too real to lie and deceive anymore. It was just the end.
In Conclusion
I will come back to talk about this show later, but for now, I just wanted to write this post about the ending. There are so many things still worth talking about, which I will talk about in the future, mainly the character studies. But, as far as the finale and the final season overall is concerned, it was done perfectly.